Princess Mononoke 2: Rise of The Demon Lord
by Darkrai Master34
Summary: After the war, things have been going smoothly for Iron Town and the forest. So is Ashitaka and San. But after learning a new and shocking secret about Ashitaka's newly replenished strength rivaling that of a high god, a demon lord begins attacking Iron Town and the forest, sending in after a demon he knew San could never kill. As secrets unfold, can Ashitaka and San stay strong?


**Hihi. I'm back with a new story, as requested by my dear cousin. See, after watching the Princess Mononoke movie, I was kinda disappointed by the ending... Not that I hated it. Anyway, my cousin Kat asked for a fanfic and after some reluctant planning, my spirit came back and here I am. And yes I know, the title sucks...**

** The first chap is actually just a recap of where the movie left off and a big flashback. The later chapters is where the real adventuring, fights, sword fights, assassins, demons, guest stars, OCs and romance will take place. Although at the end of this chap, a tiny bit of the guest star/OC and minor fluff will be there so what the heck. Anyway, I have to start this now and I'll just talk more later.**

**The Horrible Truth A.K.A. The Disclaimer:**

**I do not Princess Mononoke or anything related to it. I only own the plot, demon, OCs and random gods.**

**PRINCESS MONONOKE 2: RISE OF THE DEMON LORD**

**P.S: I know the title sucks...**

**Chapter 1: Keeping Promises Part 1**

**_Movie Flashback_**

_Iron Town, which really wasn't so much on iron anymore, was nearing completion with its repairs. After it had been destroyed four months ago by Shishi-Gami, the Forest Spirit or Deer God, the people of the town had been working hard to rebuild it. Their leader, Lady Eboshi, said that they would start over straight from square one. They would build a completely different town. A better town. This time, Iron Town wouldn't depend on iron anymore. It would be more agricultural area now._

_There were several good and valid reasons for this change. One, another big war might start between the gods and humans again and maybe this time, they would deliberately lead demons towards the town and destroy it. Since in the past, Iron Town had been cutting down and burning massive amounts of trees and pumping thousands of gallons of pollution into the forest land. This act angered the gods, spirits and animals and sought to defend their home. The fighting had been dark, bloody and brutal. But finally, a truce was made and was struck._

_It was hard believe that four months ago, the forest had been razed towards the ground with steaming tree stumps left and Iron Town completely demolished. But each side had their help._

_After the battle, the forest began to grow at a supernatural rate, thanks to the Forest Spirit, using the last of his earthly power to let the forest regrow so fast... A process which would have taken a hundred years. But of course, how about Iron Town?_

_Not to be left out, Iron Town has also had their magic supernatural help. It came from a handsome young man of about seventeen who arrived at Iron Town just before the war between the humans and the forest folk. It was even this young man who stopped the battle from becoming even bloodier. It was also him who made the truce possible. And it was his love for all things living and breathing that brought peace. It was a terrible shame, however, as he had to suffer so much for the welfare of these two sides._

_The story of the young man is both exciting and tragic. The young man's name was Ashitaka and he was once the benevolent prince of the village/kingdom of Emishi. After spending seventeen precious years in Emishi, he was sadly and unwillingly forced out oh his village._

_This sadness of his tale all started when a demon savagely attacked his village, leaving hundreds dead. This demon had used to be the resident guardian boar god Nago. Demons were only formed from fallen gods or spirits who have been consumed by overwhelming hatred, anger and grief. Such was the case of Nago. While he was protecting the forest from the invading humans, one of the humans, none other than Lady Eboshi, shot him in the chest. As the bullet burned his heart, Nago's mind and soul were filled with anger and hatred, causing extreme physical pain and suffering. Unable to take it, it all consumed Nago, effectively turning him into a demon._

_Naturally, Nago fled from the forest, aiming to cause pain and destruction. Eventually, he came upon Emishi... Ashitaka's home. Desperate not to cause any more harm to the defending militia, Ashitaka pleaded with the god-turned-demon to leave his village in peace. But Nago, whose demon mind was filled with so much anger and hatred, was completely unaware of what he was doing. So Ashitaka had no choice but to kill the demonic Nago, or watch his village and it's people die. _

_Nago died that fateful day, not before marking Ashitaka with a black and purple curse mark on his right arm. A symbol of all his pain and fury._

_And so began Ashitaka's journey to Iron Town and it's forest, as the wise woman of his village told him that his curse might be lifted if he traveled to the boar god's former home. Unfortunately, leaving the village meant never coming back. It was for the safety of the Emishi people who were thought to be extinct (personally I think that's stupid that they banish their own prince who saved their lives but he would have never met San so I'm not complaining...). And so the heroic Ashitaka had no choice but to leave... Or burn painfully from Nago's curse (spontaneous combustion). So he packed up all he could, cut his once long hair short and left with his loyal red elk, Yakul. Even though it was forbidden, Ashitaka's now former fiancée who often refers to herself as his younger sister, Kaya, went outside to see him off. As a parting gift, she gave him a crystal dagger to remember her._

_In his travels, Ashitaka discovered the few advantages of his curse mark. The mark gave him the strength of ten men, the average strength of a half-demon, which became truly helpful at crucial times. Although onlookers who witnessed his demonic attributes had labeled him for a true __half-demon who had suddenly turned good. Of course, the demon strength that was given to him was meant to make killing easier, like demons would. But Ashitaka did his very best to keep his negative bit of mind under control. For anytime he felt anger or hatred, the curse mark would slowly spread, adding to his pain and his arm would suddenly move on it's own, with a bloody intent._

_Several weeks after leaving home, Ashitaka met the traveling monk, Jigo who with his short, squat figure and his red bulbous nose looked more like a drunk than a monk. After seeing Ashitaka's curse mark, he advised the former Emishi prince to travel to the home of the Forest Spirit where he can be cured of the mark._

_Ashitaka left civilization the next day to look for the Forest Spirit. While in the forest, he discovered things that you nor I would ever see. After looking at some Kodama, the forest spirits, he found two wounded men near a waterfall claiming that the wolf god, Moro, attacked them. After some introductions, grunting and some corny jokes, Ashitaka tended to the men's injuries and hoisted up the more injured man onto Yakul. Guided by the Kodama, they slowly led the trio out of the forest and into Iron Town._

_Along the way, with the less injured man name name was Kohroku cracking more corny jokes, they came upon the very wolf god who had attacked them, Moro. Moro was huge white wolf capable of swallowing a fat horned ox without chewing. She had two similar white wolf cubs by her side who were unusually bigger than normal wolf cubs so Ashitaka guessed that they were the massive she-wolf's children. What surprised Ashitaka was that he saw a terrible gunshot wound in Moro's chest. What surprised him the most was that he saw a ragged young woman of about fifteen or sixteen cleaning out the wound, drawing out the poisoned blood._

_Initially mistaking the young woman as the Forest Spirit, Ashitaka stepped forward and politely inquired the young woman, whose name was San, whether he had reached the home of the Forest Spirit. With dark coffee brown eyes with the persona of a wolf staring coldly into the sharp yet gentle dark gray eyes of Ashitaka (I saw the movie, he HAD gray eyes), San coldly told him to leave before disappearing into the forest with the wolves, leaving behind a bewildered Ashitaka._

_After he recovered from his initial shock, he brought the two wounded men back to Iron Town, where he was welcomed with open arms. The people in Iron Town very generous and kind, with a few gutsy adventurers to the low-down cowards. Some more than others as shown when a married woman mind you, asked Ashitaka to remove his mask, betting he was handsome and calling him gorgeous when he removed the red cloth. And of course, some of the women started flirting with him, following him around like fangirls._

_(Being a bit of a shyguy with women, he DID blush alot)_

_At first, Ashitaka was happy to be with these gutsy and friendly people, maybe except for the flirting of the women and the threats from a man named Gonza. But when he learned about the conflict between the people and the forest inhabitants, he confronted Lady Eboshi about it, who in turn activated his curse..._

_And so, the other events leading to this war had begun. And with San's memory buzzing..._

_"You're beautiful."_

_That compliment from Ashitaka changed San's outlook on the humans forever._

_Following the end of the war, the supposedly dying Forest Spirit, having regained it's head from Jigo, the mysterious man who had been working with Eboshi, regrew the forest and seemingly removed Ashitaka's curse, leaving him only with his demon strength that seemed to increase a hundredfold when he gets angry even at the slightest and with a small scar of where the curse mark was once residing. They gave their last respects to Moro and Okkoto, the leader of the boar gods who has consequently turned into a demon, and accepted the fact that the Forest Spirit killed them both to rid them of their misery._

_As now armless Eboshi who had her arm bitten off by Moro told her people about starting over, Ashitaka and San both had a talk. San FINALLY confessed to Ashitaka on her love for him but regrettably told him she still could not forgive the humans (with San's wolf bros laughing at San's love-fluster) for what they did. Ashitaka understood and promised to visit her often as he helped rebuild Iron Town._

_And so that is how things have been going on so smoothly these past four months. The forest and the animals came back to their original glory, San's wolf brothers have still been teasing her, and Iron Town was nearing completion due to Ashitaka's demonic strength, being able to do what an ordinary man couldn't._

_Keeping his promise, he and Yakul visited San as often as they could, making the fabled Princess Mononoke happy and the Emishi prince just as delighted. But what Ashitaka really looked forward to is when Iron Town is finally completed and that he can finally live with San in the forest._

_\~_||~_meh_

"Ahh, Ashitaka! Help!"

Ashitaka, who was walking around the village helping some of the villagers with the rebuilding, heard a familiar shout. Running quickly, Ashitaka reached the house of his clumsy friend Kohroku who was desperately trying to hold a support beam of his house together.

"Ashitaka! Help me! I'm losing it!" The klutz cried, holding on to the wooden beam.

Trying very hard to hold in a laugh, Ashitaka ran to the house and thanks to his demon strength, he held the beam easily and secured it tightly with a piece of rope. Kohroku gave a sigh and leaned back.

"Thanks Ashitaka, you're a lifesaver..." Kohroku gasped, nearly falling over.

Ashitaka grinned, still fastening the beam together tightly. "Didn't I tell you to call me if you needed help?"

"Well, I called you didn't I?" Kohroku said, smiling.

"You are such a useless sack of muck." A voice snapped behind them.

Kohroku winced. Ashitaka shrugged, "Best you face it now my friend." Ashitaka whispered to his slightly idiot friend. Kohroku didn't have to told, he was already turning around to face the anger of his battle-hardened wife, Toki.

"Now dear, that's not really fair... You know Ashitaka is much stronger than most of us..." Kohroku said nervously.

Toki fumed, "Don't make excuses muck! Everyone knows that Ashitaka does only the heavy duty work. AND IT DOESN'T INVOLVE LITTLE PIECES OF WOOD! You can't even give one child!" Toki snarled at her husband.

The other people working around stopped and laughed at both Kohroku and Toki. Their arguments were really quite amusing. Kohroku's face turned to that of a tomato's shade. "Please honey, can we have this discussion later... Please?" Kohroku begged.

Toki glared at her husband. "If you stopped acting like a fool, maybe we wouldn't be even having this conversation!" Toki yelled, with a bad habit of embarrassing her husband in public.

Kohroku pouted and looked glum, feebly holding the wood together for the support beam. Feeling sorry for his friend, Ashitaka decided to step in, being the peacemaker he was.

"You know Toki, he's very reliable too." Ashitaka said, still grinning at Kohroku's slight foolishness and Toki's tough wife demeanor.

"Really? I don't think so." Toki said.

Ashitaka snickered a bit, finishing the first support beam and working on the other one, securing it with the same rope, "You two should just wait for Iron Town to be completely fixed, then you can focus on children."

Toki then turned on Ashitaka with the irritation gone from her face, which was instead lit up with a playful mischievousness. "Moving on Ashitaka, how are you and your... Girlfriend?"

Ashitaka blushed, turned away and worked on a third beam, "None of your real concern." He said, smiling.

Toki's face began to show a more mischievous spirit. "Dang it Ashitaka, stop holding out on ol' Toki here."

Ashitaka took a deep breath and said everything in one sentence. "I was hoping to visit San after the repairs and I really miss her right now and I'm really nervous." Ashitaka said all in one breath.

"Then you should go and visit." A smooth voice came behind them.

Ashitaka immediately turned around and saw Lady Eboshi walking towards them with a parasol held by a servant above her head and her slightly stupid yet gutsy bodyguard, Gonza, trailed behind her closely. The right sleeve of her coat and kimono was currently unoccupied by her now severed arm, making the fabric waft gently through the midsummer breeze.

Toki smiled and bowed slightly in a respectful greeting, "Milady."

Eboshi smiled and nodded back at Toki before turning back to Ashitaka who was finished with the third beam and was working on the fourth and last beam. "Go on Ashitaka. Leave the beam, we can handle things on our own for a couple of days."

"You sure?" Ashitaka asked. He didn't want to abandon his friends but he truly wanted-no, _needed _to see San.

"Yes. I think Kohroku can handle the last beam." Eboshi said. At this, Kohroku perked up.

"Yeah, I can handle it, see?" Kohroku said eagerly, holding the beam tightly to make himself useful.

"And Ashitaka, a seal master is coming to Iron Town later. He's going to check on your curse mark. You remember what happened after you got angry right?" Eboshi said, pointing at Ashitaka's formerly cursed arm.

"Yeah, an energy cloak suddenly covered me, grew a tail and smashed some things." Ashitaka said softly, remembering the time when some obnoxious merchant insulted San so badly, he just lost control for just FIVE seconds. After five seconds, the entire caravan was annihilated.

"Yes... Now go, you might worry your girlfriend." Eboshi said smirking a bit at the Emishi boy who blushed in turn.

"Thank you, I'll go saddle up Yakul now." Ashitaka said and before he went off, he took a quick look around and asked, "Hey, when do you think Iron Town will be finished?"

Eboshi shrugged with her remaining arm, "With your help all those months ago and today? I'm betting a week from now would be a valid answer."

Ashitaka grinned. "Sounds like plan. I'll try to come back early to help some more." The young prince said before running off to find his loyal red elk. Eboshi smiled slightly at the young seventeen year-old prince in love, coming back for his sixteen year-old wolf princess deep in the forest.

"Are you sure that you are letting the half-demon- I mean, the boy go? We'd finish even faster if he stays." Gonza said, still not letting go of his term, "half-demon" on the boy with demonic strength.

Eboshi shook her head, still smiling. "The prince has been away from his princess long enough." She said, her empty sleeve fluttering in the gentle breeze, "Let him spend some time with her."

"Hey Milady! Toki! I've finished the house!" Kohroku said happily, strutting out of the house... Before hitting the weak support beams of a still-weak house, causing it to fall onto another house, and then the next, and the next...

"KOHROKU YOU IDIOT!" Came the screams of a tough wife and fear of the foolish husband.

To be continued on Part 2 of: Keeping Promises.


End file.
